Reinforcements: The Appendices
by ShiieldMaidenofGondor
Summary: Outtakes and deleted scenes from Reinforcements: tidbits surrounding family, romance, friendship, and everything in between.
1. Christmas Sweaters

**AN: Hello, my lovely readers, and welcome to the deleted scenes and outtakes from my multi-chapter Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter crossover, _Reinforcements!_ You're welcome to read these without having read the big story first, but they'll probably make more sense if you take a gander at the original article first. **

**This is where I'll be posting the scenes that didn't fit into _Reinforcements_ \- outtakes, extra prompts, and other stuff that I really wanted to write but wouldn't work within the frame of the narrative. Please feel free to send me prompts!**

 **This here's a little belated Christmas fic that I started last December and only just got around to finishing and couldn't wait until next Christmas to post.**

 **I don't own Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. If I did, I could afford to spend a lot more money on cosplay than I can at the moment.**

 **Without further ado, here's _Christmas Sweaters_. Enjoy!**

* * *

On December twenty-fifth, the three-thousand and seventh year of the third age of middle earth, the Weasley siblings had a quiet pseudo-celebration in Fred and George's room. They snuck some pastries and cakes from Rivendell's kitchens, Ginny somehow managed to get a small coniferous tree in there without anyone noticing, and they exchanged small, simple gifts; things like new shirts, bowstrings, whetstones, and the like. Fred and George didn't know how she managed it, but somehow Ginny got her hands on some hearty dwarvish beer (they suspected Gandalf was in on it somehow) and they spent their evening drinking away their homesickness, grateful that they at least had each other to wish a Happy Christmas.

It was the first time for all of them that there were no sweaters waiting for them under the tree, but they stubbornly refused to acknowledge that fact. Maybe if they didn't talk about it, it wouldn't hurt so much.

* * *

As the years went by, the Weasley Christmas celebrations got more and more elaborate. It helped them get used to this new world, helped them make it more like home. No matter where their travels took them, they always made sure to make it back to Rivendell, or at least to be together, for the holiday.

Ginny was always responsible for the tree. Fred and George, for all their efforts, never caught her actually cutting the tree down or even moving it from one place to another. It would simply appear in their room one morning, usually on Christmas Eve (though one year, it showed up on the sixteenth when they didn't even think that Ginny was _in_ Imladris). It became a nice tradition for them.

It was on December 23, the three-thousand and twelfth year of the third age, that the Weasley Christmas expanded beyond just Weasleys. Ginny had been halfway through cutting down this year's tree (actually, to be more precise, she was lopping off the top few feet of a rather large pine), when she heard a shout from beneath her.

"Ginny? is that you?" she heard Aragorn call from the ground below and said witch froze. No one had ever caught her in the act of getting the Christmas tree before, though she supposed she shouldn't have been surprised that it was Aragorn who did it first. That man could track a fruit fly in the dark if he set his mind to it.

"Yeah," she called back, "gimme a minute," she shouted down to him, making quick work of the rest of the tree trunk. Holding the top of the tree with one hand and tightly gripping the branch she sat on with her legs to keep herself from falling, she drew her wand with her free hand and with a swish and a flick, carefully levitated the tree down to the ground.

"What the-" Ginny caught from Aragorn on the ground even as she started her descent. "Did you just cut off the top of this tree?" Aragorn asked once she was closer to the ground.

"Yes," Ginny confirmed as she dropped the last five feet to the snow-covered ground, landing carefully with her knees bent and looking up at her friend with a grin once she had steadied herself.

"May I ask why?" Aragorn persisted, looking reasonably confused.

"If you tell me how you found me," Ginny agreed with a shrug as she went over to the bit of tree that she had dropped to the ground. Drawing her wand once more, she charmed the thing to float beside her and with another flick, cast a disillusionment charm on it. "Shall we?" she asked with a grin, nodding in the general direction of Imladris.

"We shall," Aragorn agreed, and they were off.

"It's for something called christmas," Ginny said after they'd been walking for awhile, answering her close friend's question at last. Said friend looked to her in question, nonverbally asking her to elaborate. "It's a holiday back home," she went on, "there's religious stuff behind it that I won't bore you with, but it's a kind of Yuletide sort of celebration.

"On December twenty-fifth, families will get together, exchange gifts, eat damn extravagant meals, and just spend time together," she continued. "And most people put up a tree in their home and then decorate it for the holiday," she said, gesturing back to the disillusioned tree that still floated beside her. "Fred and George and I, we've been doing this - having our own little Christmas - every year since we got here. This is my sixth time cutting down the tree and Fred and George still haven't caught me doing it, so how in the hell did _you_ find me?"

"You are not so hard to track as you might think," Aragorn said simply. "Though I admit, I had not expected to find you in that part of the forest," he told her, looking over at her to see a proud smirk on her lips. As they walked back to an undisclosed location in Imladris where Ginny stashed the tree, she continued to explain the holiday to her good friend.

On Christmas morning, there was a newcomer sitting with the Weasleys around the tree. Aragorn joined them in the festivities and even opened a few half-assed last-minute presents from Ginny and the twins. The next year, he joined Ginny in going back to Rivendell for the twenty-fifth and there were gifts both for and from him under the tree. The next year, Arwen found out about the celebrations; Elladan and Elrohir the year after.

One year, there were a few sweaters under the tree - gifts for Ginny and Aragorn from Arwen - and the red-headed woman chose not to explain why she almost cried at the sight.

She was ashamed to say that she never wore it. It just wasn't the same. It wasn't a Christmas sweater without a massive letter "G" knitted into the front of it; without matching ones for her brothers; without Fred wearing the other "G" sweater and George wearing the "F" one. It wasn't the same.

It would never be the same.

* * *

Christmas 3018 was spent traveling. They had made it out of Moria just two days previously and lost Gandalf too. That morning, the Weasleys exchanged soft, half-hearted Happy Christmases and hauled their asses out of their bedrolls to finish the trek to Caras Galadhon. There was no tree that year, no cheerful exchange of gifts, though there was some good drinking to be had that night, even if it was just some of the home-brewed firewhiskey Fred carried in his pack. It was a melancholy sort of Christmas.

* * *

The next year was just as difficult as the last; it being their first year without Fred.

When Ginny was planning out her gifts, writing out her list, she accidentally added his name (she scratched it out and definitely didn't cry about it. Definitely not.)

In spite of that, their Christmas had grown again; including not just Ginny, George, and Aragorn, but Éowyn, Legolas, and Gimli as well. The gifts were kept simple and Aragorn had discreetly explained to the Christmas Newcomers (without Ginny or George's knowledge) why there was a blanket ban on giving sweaters as gifts.

* * *

When Aragorn and Ginny's first child, little Gilraen Hermione, came along, their little family absolutely spoiled the girl her first Christmas. She got new toys, new slippers, an absolutely precious hat that was a bit too big for her and almost covered up her blue-grey eyes, and a sweater. George had broken the unspoken rule, but he didn't care. Gilraen was a Weasley, and even if it wasn't a real Weasley Sweater, it was better than nothing.

* * *

George did the same for Ginny and Aragorn's son when he came along; little Frederick Boromir got a sweater his first Christmas.

Ginny returned the favor for George and Éowyn's son on his first Christmas. Théodred Lee was a Weasley and Ginny would be damned if she let her nephew go without a sweater on his first Christmas.

* * *

The day that Ginny was reunited with her parents was easily one of the happiest days of her life. To find her way back to them, to find them still alive and well, it was more than she had ever dared to hope for. They listened intently to what happened to them while they were gone, they were eager to meet Ginny and George's spouses and children, and Molly left no room for argument when she said something along the lines of "and you'll be coming 'round for Christmas dinner, of course."

Not that they were _going_ to argue.

By the time Christmas came around that year, there were two new members of the royal family: Arwen Cedrella and Éowyn Molly, twin baby princesses that were only two months old when they took their first trip through the floo for what was their first Christmas.

The baby girls slept through most of dinner, but they were awake and alert in time for presents. Gilraen, being the youngest one there who could read, was asked if she would like to help her cousins Hugo and Lucy (the next oldest after Gilraen) pass out the presents and she eagerly agreed. When Hugo handed his Aunt Ginny a soft, somewhat squishy package from Grandma Weasley, he didn't notice the tears that began to well up in her eyes or the way that Uncle Aragorn gave her hand a comforting squeeze. Once everything was sorted, the family turned to Ginny and Aragorn expectantly.

"Go on, open the girls' presents!" Charlie said impatiently, and Ginny obliged with a grin, carrying out the Weasley tradition of the youngest opening their presents first. There were baby clothes, small toys (notably, a set of blocks that changed color when you dropped them), but most importantly, two sweaters: one with an A and one with an E.

Théodred went next and amidst the mess of toys he unwrapped, he also received a deep blue sweater with a massive letter T on the front. Ginny cried tears of joy when she watched her own children open their own sweaters, Gilraen pulling hers on right over her dress. The dark purple sweater with a lavender G in the center was an absolute hit with the five-year-old girl. Ginny watched as the rest of her nieces and nephews opened their gifts; everything from broomstick polishing kits to new dress robes, and every single one of them got a new sweater from Grandma Weasley.

After the kids, Éowyn was the youngest adult, and she followed her niece's lead, pulling her own emerald green sweater on right then and there. Once the blonde woman was finished, the family turned to Ginny, and she took her turn, opening the gifts from her brothers and thanking them as she went. She saved the soft, squishy package from her mother for last. Carefully tearing back the paper and biting back tears, she opened up a rich, navy blue sweater with a truly hideously large letter G knitted into the front of it. Ginny couldn't help it, the tears were breaking free and she was openly crying.

"Hey, hey Gin, what's wrong?" Bill asked from his seat beside her, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Nothing," Ginny assured him, shaking her head and wiping away her tears. "I've just," she began, though she cut herself off to try to find the right words. "It has been a very long time since I've gotten one of these for Christmas," she said, a smile on her lips as she looked up at her mother. Molly smiled back at her daughter with love in the lines of her face. The rest of the present opening was a bit of a blur; though everyone did get a kick out of the fact that Ginny's husband was in fact the oldest one there.

While Percy roped his nieces and nephews into assisting with the cleanup, Ginny made her way over to her mother. She opened her mouth to say something, anything, but there weren't words for how thankful she was. Instead of saying anything then, Ginny settled on a hug.

"Thank you," the younger witch said into her mother's shoulder as the woman hugged her back.

"Happy Christmas, sweetheart," Molly said, pressing a soft kiss into her daughter's hair.

"Happy Christmas, mum."

* * *

 **Thanks for reading! If you liked it or if you have any requests or prompts, please feel free to let me know in a review or a PM!**

 **Natalie out.**


	2. I Think I'm Kinda Gay

**Hoo boy, now we get to find out what you folks think about homosexuality. Prompted by the quote from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "I think I'm kinda gay," I am proud to present _Gilraen Hermione Realizes Something Very Important About Herself_**

 **or**

 _ **The Future Queen of Gondor Is Very, Very Gay.**_

 **I still don't own Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. If I did, I'd be able to afford actual leather for my Fili cosplay.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Gilraen Hermione had never gotten crushes on boys when she was a kid. Her friends back in Minas Tirith would talk about boys all the time (it was usually Elwen who started those conversations) and Gilraen never had anything to contribute. They would talk about boys they thought were cute, talk in hushed voices about wanting to kiss them, maybe, and Gilraen would not and giggle along, all the while wondering to herself what the big deal was about boys anyway. Girls were way cooler.

It wasn't until Gilraen got to Hogwarts and started making new friends that she learned that there were girls who didn't get crushes on boys, but on other girls instead. Alice Longbottom, one of Gilraen's roommates in Gryffindor, said that girls who wanted to kiss other girls were called lesbians. When Gilraen asked her cousin Rose about it, she said that some people used the word gay, some used the word lesbian, but that Alice was essentially correct. This led to a very long discussion about many things that Gilraen had never known or even thought about before.

It was in her second year that it hit her like a ton of bricks.

She had been sitting in charms, pretending to listen to Flitwick lecture them about the wand movements for what might have been a spell to make inanimate objects dance when she caught herself daydreaming about one Meredith McClaggen. Very quietly, Gilraen leaned over and dug a scrap of parchment out of her bag and scrawled something on it, passing it to Alice who sat beside her.

 _So… I think I'm kinda gay,_ the note read.

"What?" Alice whispered back harshly, and though Gilraen wasn't looking at her, she could hear the gleeful smile in her voice. Gilraen kicked her friend under the table and she let out an indignant squeak. Flitwick's lecture paused and he looked over at the two Gryffindor girls with a warning look. Gilraen and Alice schooled their features and gave their professor their undivided attention just long enough to alleviate any suspicion.

Gilraen had been taking down a few notes about the wrist movement Flitwick was explaining, when Alice started poking her sharply in the arm. Gilraen looked down at her friend's notes to see _Who?_ scrawled sloppily in the margin. Gilraen wrote out a response in the margin of her own notes and when she was sure Flitwick wasn't looking, pushed them towards Alice.

 _Meredith McClaggen_.

Beside her, Alice was nodding sagely.

 _I don't blame you,_ she was writing in her own margins, _she's gorgeous._

* * *

Having had that realization, Gilraen found herself getting crushes on lots of girls. What she hadn't expected was to start crushing on Alice. But who could blame her? Alice was brilliant, funny, brave, kind, and one hell of a keeper for the Gryffindor quidditch team. Not to mention that she was absolutely gorgeous. She was tall and blonde and beautiful, but she was also Gilraen's best friend and Gilraen was terrified that if she told her how she felt, she'd lose her.

So Gilraen would ask other girls out on dates to Hogsmeade, go with them on romantic walks, teach them how to fly, make out with them, anything to get her mind off of Alice. And it was fun, she genuinely liked all the girls she went out with, but they weren't _Alice_. Gilraen wasn't even sure if Alice liked girls in the first place.

At least, she wasn't sure until one day after a particularly rough quidditch practice in March of their sixth year. The rest of the team had vacated the locker room already and now Gilraen was sitting on the bench between the lockers, her head in her hands as she kept going over all the shit that had gone down that practice. She was the team _captain_ , she was supposed to be keeping her team in line, training them and teaching them to work together. Ultimately, that was just so they could beat the shit out of Slytherin in their match next week, but that was beside the point. She'd failed her team today and she was beating herself up about it.

Unable to sit still any longer, Gilraen got to her feet and started pacing up and down the rows of lockers. Her own damn brother couldn't keep his head in the game today long enough to catch the snitch more than twice and her beaters had been all over the damn place. _At least Alice had been on top of her game_ , Gilraen mused, pausing to lean one shoulder against the wall of lockers. In the background, she dimly registered the shower turning off and the sounds of Alice getting out and drying herself off. Stuck in her own head, Gilraen didn't notice Alice coming up behind her until she was hugging her from behind. Gilraen closed her eyes and accepted what comfort her friend could give her until she felt a soft kiss on her bare shoulder.

Gilraen let out a soft gasp and Alice sprung back, recoiling and hugging herself around her middle, her eyes trained on a spot of floor.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me," Alice stammered out. "I just- I dunno, forget it, just forget I ever did that."

"What if I don't want to?" Gilraen challenged her softly. Alice looked up sharply at her friend to find that she was closer than she had been five seconds ago - right in her personal space close.

"Are you being serious, Gil?" Alice asked, a heartbreaking combination of hope and doubt in her voice. In response, Gilraen nodded and stepped even closer, their toes almost touching, taking Alice's hands in her own.

"I like you, Alice Longbottom," Gilraen finally said aloud. "Like, _like_ like you," she clarified with a little smile as she fought back the eruption of butterflies in her stomach. "I just- I didn't want to tell you and then totally screw up our friendship."

" _I_ didn't tell you about my crush on _you_ because _I_ didn't want to ruin our friendship," Alice admitted a bit sheepishly, though she smiled back. And with that confession, Gilraen's nervous smile turned into a wide and radiant grin that Alice couldn't take her eyes off of until Gilraen threw her arms around her neck and kissed her soundly on the lips.

* * *

"So," Gilraen started somewhat awkwardly. It was nearly the end of the school year, end-of-year term exams were done and now they were just waiting for results and Gilraen had decided to finally come out to her siblings. She'd convinced them to come with her to the room of requirement (where no-one would walk in on this sensitive discussion) with promises of ice cream and finally, she'd managed to get them to shut up long enough for her to tell them this very important information.

"I, uh," she started, but cut herself off. "For a long time, I- no. Recently, I- oh forget it, I'm gay," she finally just said outright.

"What?" the twins, first years Éowyn and Arwen, chorused.

"Duh," Fred said through a mouthful of ice cream.

"Wait, 'duh?' How long have you known?" Gilraen rounded on Fred.

"Since I walked in on you and Alice snogging in the locker room after our last practice before the quidditch final," he said nonchalantly.

"That was _four weeks ago!_ " Gilraen cried indignantly.

"Wait, Alice is your girlfriend?" Éowyn asked for clarification, looking confused.

"I- yeah, Ali's my girlfriend," Gilraen confirmed for her sister.

"Does Professor Longbottom know?" Arwen asked. Gilraen shook her head.

"No, Alice's parents don't even know she's a lesbian, let alone that she's dating me," she replied. "And it is going to stay that way," she said firmly, leveling all three of her siblings with a glare, "until Alice feels comfortable enough to tell them herself." They nodded in understanding.

"Do Mum and Ada know?" Fred asked then, and Gilraen's silence was answer enough.

"No," she confirmed aloud. "So please don't tell them either, I'll come out to them when I'm ready."

"We promise, Gil," Arwen spoke for the three of them.

"We love you, Gil," Éowyn said, getting up to give her big sister a hug, one that Gilraen returned a bit tearfully.

"Yeah," Fred agreed, him and Arwen getting up themselves to hug their older sister. "And your girlfriend's pretty cool too, I guess," he said with an exaggerated shrug and a mischievous glint in his eye which earned him a slap upside the head from Gilraen. But she hugged them back and she was so grateful for them in that moment. She wasn't sure what her parents would say when she finally came out to them, but she knew it would be easier with her siblings on her side.

* * *

Gilraen was woken up abruptly on what would have surely been the beautiful morning of August 24th, about a week before her seventh year at Hogwarts was due to begin, had she been allowed to wake on her own time. But alas, she couldn't have that because her girlfriend had to go and wake her up at the crack of dawn.

"What, Alice?" Gilraen grumbled. "What in Manwe's name could be more important than sleep right now?" she asked grumpily, rolling over on to her back and throwing an army ver her eyes to block the morning sunlight.

"My mum, that's what," she replied, and Gilraen finally looked up to see her girlfriend frantically running around her bedroom around her bedroom in just her bra and a pair of sweatpants.

"Ali, what the hell does your mum have to do with me not being allowed to sleep in?" Gilraen whined. "Just come back to bed-"

"Gil," Alice cut her off in a no-nonsense tone that was eerily similar to the one that Professor Longbottom used to scold his students. "My mum is gonna be coming up here in, like, ten minutes to wake us up and as far as she knows, _I am straight as a ruler_ and you were just here for a sleepover. So _please_ , Gil, just put some clothes on," she asked as patiently as she could, tossing a shirt - they weren't sure who it belonged to - Gilraen's way. The red-haired witch pulled the green shirt - it turned out to be a Holyhead Harpies shirt from the match they'd gone to last summer - on over her head, then turning her attention to the room itself, helping Alice in her quest to find all the clothing that they had so hastily discarded last night.

"So your mum and dad still don't know?" Gilraen prodded gently in the hopes that Alice would open up.

"Nope," she confirmed, "here are your shorts," she continued, passing the denim garment to Gilraen.

"Why not tell them?" the red-headed girl asked as she tossed the shorts onto the bed and snatched up her panties from where she spotted them on the floor by the window, pulling them on hastily. "I mean, my parents don't know yet either, but that's because of the whole 'continuing the family line' thing." Actually, it was because as the eldest daughter of the King and Queen of Gondor, she was going to be the next Queen and that would mean that unless by some miracle the people of Gondor suddenly found themselves accepting of women marrying other women, there wasn't much of a point in telling anyone. But Alice didn't exactly know about the whole 'princess' thing.

"I don't know," Alice lamented in response to Gilraen's question. "Like, I think they'd be okay with it. I think they'd be supportive - my mum was a hufflepuff for fuck's sake - but I _don't_ think they'd be supportive of me having sex with my girlfriend while we're both so young," she explained as she pulled on the vintage Weird Sisters t-shirt she had found under the bed.

"But we're of age!" Gilraen protested. "According to the wizarding world, we're adults! We can make our own decisions, damn it, and I have _decided_ to date you," she said with conviction, approaching her girlfriend and gently taking her hands in her own. Gilraen had been stretching up on her toes to give her a gentle kiss, but the two of them heard the creaking sounds of someone ascending the ancient steps of the Leaky Cauldron.

"Mum!" Alice whispered harshly, her eyes going wide. The girls scrambled to get back into bed, lying on their sides and facing away from each other. Gilraen had just gotten her frantic breathing to calm down when there was a knock on the door to Alice's bedroom followed by a creak of protesting hinges. The girls made a show of looking like they had just woken up, yawning and blinking blearily.

"Good morning, girls," Mrs. Longbottom greeted her daughter and her friend. "Breakfast is ready whenever you are," she said kindly, and Alice nodded in understanding, her mouth open wide in a yawn.

"Thanks, mum," she said.

"Morning, Mrs. Longbottom," Gilraen returned her greeting a bit late.

"Good morning, dear" the kind woman replied with a warm smile.

"We'll be down in a minute, mum," Alice assured her mother, throwing in another yawn at the end of her sentence. Mrs. Longbottom nodded at them and then left, closing the door behind her. Hauling themselves out of bed for real this time, the two girls picked up the clothing they'd kicked out of the way and made themselves somewhat presentable - enough for the common room of the Leaky Cauldron, anyway. As Alice was reaching for the doorknob, she paused.

"I'll come out to them soon," she said softly, turning back to face her girlfriend. "I don't want to hide this from them for much longer," she said.

"As long as you feel safe and comfortable doing it," Gilraen said, pausing for a moment before continuing, " _meleth-nín_." Alice looked down at her girlfriend with a puzzled look on her face.

"What's that you called me? Because whatever it was, you made it sound sexy as hell," she informed her, stepping away from the door and further into Gilraen's personal space, her hands finding their way to her girlfriend's hips.

"It's nothing, something from back home," Gilraen brushed it off, fighting back the pleasant chills that ran up and down her spine from Alice's close proximity. She loved Alice, she knew that as sure as she knew how to wield a sword, but she hadn't told her yet and she was going to be keeping it that way for awhile. But until then, Alice didn't speak Sindarin, so using that language's phrase for 'my love' was perfectly safe. "C'mon," Gilraen redirected Alice's attention, stretching up on her toes to give her a quick peck on the lips, "I'm starved."

* * *

"Hey, mum?" Gilraen said on the afternoon of August 27th, knocking on the doorframe of her mother's study.

"Yes, _nínim?_ " Ginny asked over her shoulder, diverting her attention away from her work to look at her daughter only to see her hugging herself nervously and chewing on her bottom lip.

"Is everything alright, sweetheart?" Ginny asked gently, getting to her feet and approaching her seventeen-year-old daughter.

"Can- can I talk to you about something?" she asked anxiously and Ginny nodded, guiding her over to the plush armchairs by her fireplace.

"Do you want some tea, _nínim?_ " Ginny asked, and Gilraen nodded, grateful to her mum for doing what she could to make her feel comfortable and safe. "Now," Ginny said, passing her daughter her tea - just how she liked it, with milk and two sugars - and taking a seat beside her, "what did you want to talk to me about?"

"I- well, I um," Gilraen struggled to figure out where to begin. "Merlin, it was easier to tell Freddie, R, and Ayo about this," she lamented, setting down her tea and burying her head in her hands. _She is so much like her father,_ Ginny remarked inwardly as she watched her daughter assume the same position that Aragorn would whenever he was agitated or anxious - hunched over, head in hands, and fingers tugging at hair. Setting down her own tea, Ginny placed a hand between her daughter's shoulder blades and began to rub her back with calming, circular strokes, a trick that had always worked to calm her down (at least when she was a baby).

After a few moments, Gilraen took a deep, shuddering breath that clued Ginny in to the fact that she had been crying. _It's gonna be okay. Mum loves you, Ada loves you, and even if they're not okay with this, then you have Fred, Arwen, and Éowyn,_ she told herself. _It's gonna be okay. It is going to be okay._

"I- oh, fuck it, I'm gay, mum," Gilraen finally said, pushing her hair out of her face, but still not looking at her mother.

For awhile, Ginny was lost for words.

"Language, sweetheart," she finally said with a little smile, and finally, Gilraen looked up at her mother, a watery little huff of laughter falling from her lips.

"Are you mad?" Gilraen asked, tucking her hair behind her ears and wiping at her eyes.

"About your foul language? A little, but about you liking girls? Absolutely not," Ginny assured her warmly, cupping her daughter's cheek and wiping away her tears herself. "Gilraen, you are my daughter and I love you and that will never change," she said firmly. Gilraen felt like a massive weight had been lifted off of her chest; she was _so_ relieved, this was the best that she could have hoped for. Her mum still loved her and she supported her. Tears in her eyes, happy tears this time, Gilraen threw her arms around her mother's neck and hugged her tightly.

"Thanks, mum," Gilraen said into her mother's shoulder as she held her close and pressed a kiss to her hair. Gilraen just let her mother hold her, comfort her, until she calmed down and finally broke away, smiling through the happy tears that were still falling form her eyes.

"So, is there a girlfriend I should know about?" Ginny asked then, tucking her legs up under her and settling into the couch, her voice taking on a tone not unlike a gossiping teenager.

"Mum!" Gilraen whined, ducking her head to hide her blushing face, though she couldn't help laughing at her mother.

"What? If you have someone, I'd like to get t know her!" Ginny insisted.

"Yes mum, I have a girlfriend," Gilraen said with a sigh. "I'm dating Alice."

At that, her mum let out a squeal. Gilraen's mother, the Queen of Gondor and Arnor, actually _squealed_.

" _Mum!_ "

"Oh, I'm sorry, _nínim_ , I'm just happy for you," Ginny said, taking her daughter's hand in her own and giving it a squeeze.

"She hasn't told her parents yet though, so-"

"So don't go talking to Neville and Hannah about you two and your relationship," Ginny finished, to which Gilraen smiled at her gratefully.

"Yeah, thanks mum, and-"

"Ginny?" Gilraen's father's voice floated in from the hallway, followed shortly by the man himself strolling into the room. Gilraen froze, but Ginny gave her hand another reassuring squeeze.

"Hello, love," Ginny greeted her husband and he came over to the two women, putting an arm around his wife's shoulder and kissing the crown of her head.

"Hey, Ada," Gilraen greeted her father, her nerves coming back and making themselves known in her tone of voice.

"Is everything alright, _nínim?_ " Aragorn asked his daughter with concern. Ginny exchanged a look with her daughter - _Are you comfortable telling him?_ \- she asked nonverbally. _Yeah_ , Gilraen's silent response.

"Gilraen was just telling me something, _meleth-nin_ ," Ginny began, looking to her daughter again to allow her to explain herself if she wanted.

"I- wow, you think that after telling mum it would be easier to tell you," Gilraen started. She took a deep breath, gripping her mother's hand tightly, and looked up at her father. "I'm gay, Ada," she said bluntly, and he took on a bit of a puzzled expression.

"I'm glad that you're happy, _nínim_ , but why are you so anxious?" he asked, and the two women in the room burst out into laughter, Gilraen in spite of herself.

"I mean that I like girls, Ada," Gilraen clarified, "I have a girlfriend and everything."

Aragorn shrugged in response.

"Are you happy with her?" he asked simply. Gilraen nodded, a nervous smile on her lips. "Then that's all that matters," he said, taking her free hand and giving it a squeeze, just as her mother had done. Overwhelmed her parents' love and acceptance, Gilraen jumped to her feet and hugged her father around his middle, burying her face in his chest.

"Oh, Gilraen," Aragorn murmured, returning his daughter's embrace and pressing a gentle kiss to her hair. "Your mother and I love you so much and that will never change," he assured her. Gilraen nodded into her father's chest.

"Thanks, Ada."

* * *

 **Thanks for reading! If you liked this oneshot, let me know in a review! If there are any scenes you want to see me write, shoot me a message and I'll see what I can do!**

 **Natalie out.**


	3. Ginevra vs Nobility

**AN: I'm back! This time, I'm here with a little piece about Ginny acting as a ruler in her role as Queen. ngl, I got the idea for this from one of the many hot button topics in this presidential race, but idc. I wanted to explore how Ginny would behave as Queen and how she would handle that power, how she would use it, etc, and this is what I came up with!**

 **I still don't own Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. If I did, I- I don't know, I'm running out of things that I can't afford financially. I'm poor. I would not be poor if I owned any of these copyrights.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

"I would just like to put forward that these families you speak of are doing just fine as they are! If they wish to move up in society, they need merely work for it!"

"Lord Ingold," Ginny cut off the unpleasant man she and her husband had the misfortune of calling an advisor, "are you aware that my brother and I grew up in an impoverished household?" she asked him. Ginny had spent the last hour of her life arguing with stubborn old wealthy men over her proposed welfare program for the city of Minas Tirith with hardly any headway. It was the first large piece of legislation that she had written up as Queen and when Ginny had proposed this to her husband, he had been all for it; he too understood the constraints that money could place on people and wished no such disparity upon his people. The wealthy lords that would be taxed in order to make this work, however, were another story.

"I know what it is like to live in a home where money is tight," Ginny continued, and Lord Ingold sat down at long last in the face of his Queen's carefully concealed anger. "My father worked tirelessly to provide for his family and my mother worked herself just as hard to raise myself and my six brothers," she went on with a glare, silently daring any of these noblemen to make a remark about her parents and the number of children they had. George, however, had his jaw set, clenched tightly, and nodded when Ginny looked to him for either permission or assurance, she wasn't sure. "There were nights when my parents went hungry so that their children would have full stomachs.

"They thought we didn't notice," Ginny added with a huff. "My parents did everything they could to give my brothers and I decent lives, but something were simply unavoidable. We all wore hand-me-downs, there were hardly ever any new clothes in the house, and the only reason we were able to get educations was because of financial assistance from the school we attended," Ginny admitted before the whole board of advisors. Beside her, Aragorn placed a hand upon hers where it rested on the table in a gesture of solidarity and comfort.

"This program that I am proposing would provide aid that our citizens truly need if they are living in a situation like the one I grew up in or worse. And might I add, Lord Ingold, that no one can simply _work_ for a better station in life."

"And how do you explain yourself, my Lady?" Lord Hirluin dared speak up, to which Ginny fixed him with a glare and Aragorn lifted a hand to his temple.

"Lord Hirluin, I am sure that your _Queen_ would appreciate it if you would shut your impressively ignorant mouth," George said somewhat dryly, though he too was glaring at Hirluin.

"Lord Hirluin," Ginny redirected the large man's attention to herself, "though it is none of your business, it was by pure chance that I happened to fall in love with an heir to a kingdom of men and -" she paused, rolling her eyes and looking back at her husband to see hints of a shit-eating grin on his face, "- yes, dear, I did fall in love with you, now hush-" giving her husband a playful slap on the arm, she turned back to Hirluin. "That is not something that happens every day and hardly something we should be discussing right now. The matter at hand is the poor people of Minas Tirith and I know that you men, as representatives of our city's wealthy, do not like the idea of being taxed more to fund this program, but frankly, I don't give a shit."

At that, most of the noblemen raised their eyebrows at the Queen's language, but George was grinning widely, Faramir beside him wore a satisfied little smirk, and Aragorn had recognized his wife's coming victory and had shifted to sit back in his chair to watch the spectacle unfold.

"It is not for you to decide if the people in this city need help. Once this program is implemented, if our citizens so choose, they may come to us for aid and then it will be decided what they receive - a decision that will be decided by no less than three of the people present here, one of them being the King, myself, or my brother. The wealthiest people of this kingdom will be subject to higher taxes to fund this because frankly, you can afford it. No, I do not care that you will not be able to have as many feasts. I do not care if your wives will be upset about not getting as many new dresses or as many apology jewels, and I could not care less about the _pleasurable company_ some of you are so concerned about paying off. Citizens of this kingdom are starving and you do not get to say that they do not deserve food.

"This was really just a formality, I hope you realize," Ginny then said, and that was when the noblemen's faces blanched. "This order will be going into effect in three weeks' time, it has already been signed off on, and if you have a problem with it, then you can move your pretentious asses out to Mordor."

With that, Ginny pushed her chair out from the table with a loud scraping noise and swept out of the conference room, slamming the door behind her.

A few moments passed by in tense silence, the noblemen exchanging concerned looks while George and Faramir sat back smiling proudly and Aragorn massaged his temples. At long last, Aragorn himself stood from his chair, commanding the attention of the room.

"This meeting is adjourned," he said shortly, before following his wife, though he closed the door far more gently than she did. He found her in their bedroom, halfway through stripping out of her dress and having some difficulty with the back laces in her agitation. Approaching her from behind with audible footsteps, he reached for her hands which were still yanking and jerking at the stubborn fabric. At the contact, she jumped a little, and Aragorn gently ran his hands down her arms in a comforting gesture.

"It's only me, _meleth-nin_ ," he said softly, leaning down to press a kiss to her cheek. Ginny relaxed a bit, but she was still very tense. Wordlessly, Aragorn turned his attention to the laces of Ginny's dress and began to work them loose until he was able to slide the garment off of her shoulders, letting it fall to the floor and leaving her standing in her shift. When Ginny turned around to face her husband, he saw an unspeakably _tired_ expression on her face.

"Everywhere," she began simply. "Fucking _everywhere_ there are people who are poorer and people who are richer. And _everywhere,_ those fucking assholes will never come down from their high horses. They prefer to watch that horse trample the harvest and then wonder why the people are hungry. If it's not these noblemen here, it's blood suprematists back in England and people like the fucking Malfoys, and I-"

Ginny cut herself off, digging her fingers in her hair. Looking more closely, Aragorn noticed that there was a certain wetness in her eyes. He wanted nothing more than to reach out and comfort her, but she needed this. She needed to let out her frustrations and her anger; otherwise, she would explode.

"They do not care about anyone but themselves," Ginny went on. "They're too damn selfish and self-centered to worry about the rest of the world unless something directly threatens their wealth." She was pacing now, and Aragorn had moved to sit on the edge of their bed, watching her carefully. "I would love to watch them try to justify their lifestyles to an impoverished mother," she stated. "Let them feel guilty for once in their lives, _Merlin_ ," she swore, wiping at her eyes. Recognizing that she was ready for the comfort he could provide, Aragorn stood and went to his wife, taking her into his arms and holding her close. Ginny buried her face in his chest and he murmured soothing noises in her ear as he rubbed her back and did what he could to wordlessly remind her of just how _safe_ and _loved_ she was.

"I've walked through the lower levels of the city," Ginny said after a moment. "In disguise, of course.

"I met a woman there named Ivorwen," Ginny went on. "She saw me in the street and asked me if I was okay. I guess I looked a bit bedraggled or something, but she waved me over to her and invited me into her home. Aragorn, it was _so_ small. One room for their kitchen, living room, and dining room, and two bedrooms for Ivorwen, her husband, and their three kids. This woman, she- she was incredible. It was easy to tell that she and her husband were struggling; their clothes had been mended too many times to count, they were all a bit too thin, but I could tell that Ivorwen loved her family more than anything.

"But you know what really got me?" she asked, her head still cradled against her husband's chest.

"What?" Aragorn asked softly.

"She offered me food," Ginny said, and her voice was close to breaking. She felt Aragorn press a kiss to the crown of her head and linger there, curled around her and offering her his warmth and his comfort. _Merlin_ , she loved him. "This woman," Ginny found the strength to go on, even though she was on the verge of tears, "she barely had enough to feed her family and she offered me a seat at her dinner table. I tried to refuse, I told her that I couldn't possibly take her food, not when she had three kids to worry about, but she insisted.

"So I stayed and I may or may not have only eaten half of my bowl of stew and passed the rest on to the children, and then I stayed after to help her around the house - I washed her dishes for her and helped fold her laundry. She asked me if I had anyplace to _sleep_ that night, Aragorn," Ginny said, and she couldn't stop it now, there were tears rolling down her cheeks and soaking into his shirt. "She was so _kind_. She doesn't deserve to live like that, _no one_ does," she said, her voice hardly louder than a whisper, now.

For a few moments neither of them said anything.

"She reminded me so much of my mother," Ginny said finally.

"And she will not be suffering for very much longer," Aragorn said soothingly. "You have seen to that. Because of you, the people of this city will have better lives; the poorer communities of the city will be revived and there will be plenty of food on all of their tables," he assured her. "Ginny, you have so much love in your heart, it is one of the many things I love about you," he told her, pressing another kiss to her hair. "It is your love for the people of our kingdom that will do them good; more than I could ever hope to do. You are the one that our people love, and that is because you have such love for them and you express it by taking care of them.

"And if any of the noblemen have a problem with that," he said, gently loosening their embrace enough to look his wife in the eye and wipe away her tears with callused thumbs, "then as you so eloquently put it, 'they can move their pretentious asses out to Mordor.'" Ginny huffed out a watery laugh at that, but there was a hint of a smile beginning to grow on her lips.

"You are doing well by our people, _meleth-nin_ ," Aragorn assured her once more, before bending down to press a gentle kiss to her lips. Ginny's hands on his shoulders tightened their grip ever so slightly as she kissed him back.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading! If you liked it, let me know in a review!**

 **Also, if you live in the United States in Florida, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, or Ohio, today, March 15, is the primary election! If you're old enough, _go vote!_ I don't know about the other states, but in Illinois, as long as you'll be eighteen or older by the time the general election rolls around, you can vote in the primaries! So _please_ , go out and vote! Contrary to popular belief, it does matter.**

 **Natalie out!**


	4. Separation Anxiety

**AN: So in my time-honored tradition of writing fanfic instead of doing homework, here's a short lil bit about the Hogwarts sortings of the reinforcements second generation (well, most of them).**

 **I still don't own Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. If I did, I would be a wealthy woman indeed.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

On April 3rd, the twelfth year of the fourth age, an odd noise came from the window of one Gilraen Hermione's bedroom. It was a tapping sound, persistent and annoying, and it woke the young princess up on the morning of her eleventh birthday. Yawning widely, the girl pushed away her comforter and blankets and shuffled to the window in question, only to find an owl perched on the outer sill. Gilraen narrowed her eyes at the creature and tilted her head a bit to the side in confusion. _What on earth was an owl doing on her windowsill this early in the morning?_ Her father had taught her that owls were night creatures, that they only ever flew when the moon was out, and at the moment, it was very bright and sunny. Gilraen stared at the creature, puzzling over it, until she noticed a letter tied to its leg.

And in a flash, Gilraen realized what was happening. Her cousins had told her stories about Hogwarts — about getting their letter and about going away to school — and this must be it! Excitedly, Gilraen opened up the window and welcomed the bird inside, watching it swoop in and perch on her nightstand, extending its leg for her to free the letter. She untied the string holding on the thick parchment envelope with trembling hands and as soon as it was free, the owl pushed off of the nightstand, soaring out through the window.

Gilraen watched the bird go, her letter clutched tightly in hand, and only once she could no longer see the owl's tawny feathers did she turn her attention to the letter, addressed in black ink and sealed with wax that had been stamped with a crest in the shape of a shield.

 _Gilraen Hermione, Daughter of Aragorn and Ginevra_

 _The Westernmost Bedroom_

 _The Royal Chambers_

 _Minas Tirith, Gondor_

 _Middle Earth_

Excitedly, Gilraen tore open the envelope and began to read the first page.

 ** _Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry_**

 _Headmistress: Minerva McGonagall_

 _Dear Ms. Weasley,_

 _We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment._

 _Term begins on September 1st. We await your owl by no later than July 31st._

 _Yours Sincerely,_

 _Pomona Sprout_

 _Deputy Headmistress_

Gilraen was grinning from ear to ear as she turned to the second page.

 ** _Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry_**

 _UNIFORM_

 _First-year students will require:_

 _Three sets of plain work robes (black)_

 _One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear_

 _One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)_

 _One winter cloak (black, with silver fastenings)_

 _Please note that all pupil's clothes should carry name tags._

 _COURSE BOOKS_

 _All first-year students should have a copy of the following:_

 _The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk_

 _A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot_

 _A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch_

 _Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling_

 _One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore_

 _Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger_

 _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander_

 _The Beginner's Guide to Self-Defense by Wilhelmina Bolger_

 _OTHER EQUIPMENT_

 _1 wand_

 _1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)_

 _1 set glass or crystal phials_

 _1 telescope_

 _1 set brass scales_

 _Students may also bring, if they desire, an owl OR a cat OR a toad._

 _PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICK._

 _Yours sincerely,_

 _Lucinda Thomsonicle-Pocus_

 _Chief Attendant of Witchcraft Provisions_

When Gilraen finished reading, she stood there in shock for a good long while. She got accepted at _Hogwarts_ , the place her cousins always talked about, that her mum and Uncle George remembered so fondly. She was going to go to _school_ for _magic._ Unable to contain herself, she let out a peal of joyous laughter and darted out her bedroom door, tearing down the halls of the citadel to her mum and Ada's bedroom. The young princess skidded to a stop outside the door and pounded on it with rapid knocks, bouncing on her heels in excitement.

There was some grumbling from inside, followed by footsteps and her father opening her parents' bedroom door.

"Gilraen, _nínim,_ what is it?" he asked, some concern in his voice.

"Good morning, Ada!" Gilraen replied cheerily. "Look what I got today!" she said, shoving the letter in her father's face.

"Love, what's going on?" Gilraen heard her mother's voice from inside and she pushed past her father to tell her the good news.

"I got my Hogwarts letter!" Gilraen said excitedly, skipping over to her mother, still beaming. At that, her mum smiled widely and gave her daughter a hug.

"Oh, congratulations, _nínim!_ " Ginny said, accepting the letter from her husband. "Well, we certainly have a lot to get for you, don't we!"

"Can we go today?" Gilraen asked excitedly. "We'll have to go to Diagon Alley, right? That's where Hugo and Lucy said they got their school things - can I floo to the Burrow to tell Grandmum and Granddad?"

"Slow down, _nínim_ ," Aragorn said from behind his daughter, an amused smile on his face. "We can't go get your things today, but how about you write your grandparents a letter to tell them the good news?" he suggested. Gilraen nodded excitedly and dashed out of the room, her letter clutched tight in her hand.

"Think she'll figure out that the owl came from our room and not directly from Hogwarts?" Ginny asked once Aragorn had closed the door behind their daughter. He shrugged.

"It's not as if we forged the letter," he said. "You wanted her to get the full experience, right?" he asked for clarification as Ginny went to her changing screen, from behind which she drew out a cage that held the very tawny owl that had woken their daughter that morning. "As I understand it, it would be fairly difficult for an owl to make it through the floo," he said a bit wryly, in response to which, Ginny rolled her eyes.

"No way in hell would an owl be able to make it through that on its own," she scoffed.

"I expect she will figure it out," Aragorn said, bringing the conversation back around to his wife's original question. "But perhaps it doesn't matter." Ginny nodded in agreement.

"I'm going to go return this owl to Minerva," she said, kissing her husband on the cheek and going to the fireplace. Taking a handful of hers and George's cross-world floo powder, she tossed it in and green flames sprung up in the hearth. With the owl safely in its cage and said cage in her firm grip, Ginny stepped into the fireplace.

"Hogwarts, Headmistress's office!" she said clearly, and with a flash of green flame, she was gone.

* * *

When Gilraen walked into the Great Hall for the first time, she was in awe. It was just like her family had said - there were candles floating above the tables, beautiful banners hanging on the walls, and she could see the night sky in the ceiling up above. For a moment, she looked for Eärendil, before remembering that the stars were different here; in this sky, she wouldn't find the ones her father taught her to navigate by. Her attention was redirected away from the starry ceiling when she walked in to the girl in front of her — a blonde girl with bright blue eyes.

"Sorry!" Gilraen apologized in a whisper, "I didn't see everyone stopping."

"It's okay," the girl assured her with a smile. She looked like she was about to say something else, but then their attention was diverted by Professor Sprout coming up to place an old and ratty looking hat onto a three legged stool. Gilraen's eyes widened in recognition; her mum had refused to tell her how the sorting worked, her uncle had said that it involved fighting a troll, but when she asked Hugo, Lucy, and Rose about it, they told her about the sorting hat. A rip near the brim of the hat then opened up and the thing burst into song, telling about the four houses and the qualities they embraced. When it was done, the hat went still and Professor Sprout stepped up with a piece of parchment in hand.

"First years, when I read your name off of this list, you will come forward, I will place the sorting hat on your head, and you will be sorted into your houses," she explained. "Accrington, Valerie," she called out, and a brunette girl wove her way out to the front from the middle of the crowd and nervously took her seat on the stool. Professor Sprout lowered the hat onto the girl's head and after a moment, the rip opened wide.

" _Ravenclaw!"_ the hat cried, and the girl let out a sigh of relief, handing the hat to Professor Sprout and skipping happily to the blue and bronze table that raucously cheered her arrival. Boot, Jessica was next, getting sorted into Hufflepuff, followed by Brennan, Edward, who went to Slytherin. Gilraen's classmates took their turns going up to get sorted — she didn't pay much attention, honestly — until Professor Sprout got to the Ls.

"Longbottom, Alice," Professor Sprout called, and the blonde girl Gilraen had bumped into went up to the stool, but not without throwing an excited little grin back at her. The girl's smile turned a bit nervous as she sat down and the hat spent a bit longer on her head than it had on the others. After about two minutes, the hat seemed to nod decisively.

" _Gryffindor!"_ the hat shouted, and with a wide grin, Longbottom, Alice jumped off of the stool, almost forgetting to return the hat in her excitement. The sorting continued until there were just four of them left.

"Vaisey, Robert," Professor Sprout called, and a pale, black-haired boy stepped forward, getting sorted into Slytherin. Once the hall quieted down, Professor Sprout returned her attention to the list.

"Weasley, Gilraen," she announced, and taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, Gilraen stepped forward, mounting the three steps up the daïs and taking a seat on the three-legged stool. She waited nervously for Professor Sprout to place the hat on her head, her hands in her lap, nervously gripping her robes. The hat, once it was on her head, fell below her eyes.

" _Interesting, interesting,"_ said the hat's voice inside her head. _"You say that you're a Weasley, but you are more than that, aren't you? You're not even entirely human, are you?"_

 _"I- no? I don't know, I know my dad's-"_ Gilraen internally responded, but the hat cut her off.

 _"That's neither here nor there, Miss Weasley. You can do great things, Miss Weasley, and there is but one place for you-"_ the hat said, before she felt its presence leave her mind. " _Gryffindor!"_ the hat cried aloud, and grinning widely, Gilraen handed the hat off to Professor Sprout and ran to her new house table, where her cousins — Hugo and Lucy — had saved a seat for her among her cheering new housemates.

* * *

Two years later, on May 13th, the 14th year of the fourth age, it was Fred who was woken up by an owl with a letter. Four months later, he joined his sister on the Hogwarts Express, but he was quick to abandon her when he met two other boys in his year — Tommy Finch-Fletchley and Garrett Casey — who he was quick to befriend. Gilraen waved her brother goodbye as he followed Hagrid and the other first years into the boats. Gilraen, Alice, and Rose joined their classmates in the horseless carriages and the three of them hurried to find seats together at the Gryffindor table.

The first years filed in with Fred's ginger head at the front of the pack and the Hogwarts community watched as Alloway, Graham was sorted into Hufflepuff. Gilraen watched the sorting with detached interest until Professor Sprout reached the end of the alphabet.

"Weasley, Fred," Sprout called out, and Gilraen watched as her brother, the second to last one in his year, went up to the stool and excitedly jammed the sorting hat on his head. It was barely there for two seconds before-

" _Gryffindor!"_ the hat shouted, and Gilraen let out a whooping cheer for her little brother, who practically ran to the Gryffindor table which had erupted into applause.

* * *

Three years later, it was the twins' turn and Gilraen and Fred watched their sorting with a mix of excitement and anxiety.

"Weasley, Arwen," Professor Sprout called, and they watched as their little sister made her way up to the stool and placed the hat on her head. After a tense few moments, the rip in the hat opened up and shouted-

" _Hufflepuff!"_

Gilraen's mouth fell open in surprise, but she collected herself after a moment to cheer for her little sister. She had expected — perhaps a bit naively — for all of her siblings to join her in Gryffindor, but apparently that wasn't going to be the case. But if Arwen's face was anything to judge by, she wasn't too pleased with her sorting, so Gilraen tried to meet her eyes across the hall to give her a reassuring smile, until her attention was redirected by Professor Sprout's voice.

"Weasley, Éowyn," she called, and the remaining Weasley sibling placed the sorting hat upon her head. Less than a minute later, the hat had made its decision.

" _Gryffindor!"_ it shouted, and it was with an anxious look to her twin that she crossed the hall to sit with her older brother and sister.

From the neighboring table, Arwen locked eyes with her twin sister, her expression full of anxiety and disappointment. Éowyn didn't look much better. Gilraen and Fred exchanged concerned looks. The twins had never been separated before; those two were practically tied at the hip, they were so close. They did _everything_ together, from their first steps to their first swordfighting lessons. They had been _so_ excited for Hogwarts — for rooming together, having all their classes together, and exploring the castle together. After the feast, they didn't even get a chance to talk to each other before their respective prefects — Jessica Boot and Danny Sprecher of Hufflepuff and Roy Dunbar and Gilraen herself for Gryffindor — had to direct them to their house common rooms.

That night, Gilraen was woken up by a tentative shake of her shoulder. She rolled over in bed to find her little sister standing there, wringing her hands and chewing on her bottom lip.

"Hey, hey Ayo, what's up?" Gilraen asked softly, so she wouldn't wake her roommates.

"I- I don't know," she said with a shrug, scratching at the back of her neck. "I-" she tried again, and Gilraen scooted over to make a space for her to sit.

"Is it Arwen?" Gilraen asked gently. Éowyn nodded glumly.

"I miss her."

Gilraen didn't know what to say. What could she say? She couldn't exactly make the sorting hat re-sort the twins; there was nothing she could do. So she did what she could, and that was to put an arm around her sister's shoulders and hug her to her side, comforting her as well as she knew how.

"You guys will figure this out," Gilraen said softly. "Maybe this is a chance for you guys to, uh, y'know, branch out. Meet new people, make new friends, grow as people and junk?" she tried. Éowyn scoffed at that. "Ayo, there's nothing you can do about not being in the same house as R, so you two are just gonna have to figure out how to make it work," Gilraen said softly. Éowyn nodded glumly and moved to lean her head on Gilraen's shoulder. The two sisters were silent for a few minutes until something occurred to Gilraen.

"Come on," she whispered, Getting to her feet and gesturing for Éowyn to follow. She obliged and trailed behind her sister down to the stairs and into the common room.

"Gil, are we supposed to be out of bed so late?" Éowyn asked a bit nervously. Gilraen only gave her sister a mischievous smirk.

"You wait here, I'll be right back," she said assuredly before darting up the boys' staircase with quiet feet. Éowyn waited for nearly five minutes until her sister returned, an old piece of parchment in one hand, some silvery, almost translucent fabric in the other, and-

"Fred?" Éowyn whispered harshly. "What are you doing here?" she asked sharply.

"He's coming with us," Gilraen replied, though she sounded a bit annoyed.

"You want to use my cloak and my map, then I'm coming with you," Fred declared.

"Your cloak and your what?" Éowyn asked.

"My invisibility and the Marauder's Map!" Fred answered proudly.

"They're not even yours, you idiot," Gilraen said, rolling her eyes.

"Well they are now," Fred argued petulantly. "I got them from Hugo after he got them from Teddy."

"You mean _you_ stole them from Hugo after _he_ stole them from Teddy," Gilraen clarified. Fred shrugged unapologetically.

"What do these things _do_ exactly?" Eosin redirected her siblings' attention.

"These things are gonna let us go visit Arwen," Gilraen said with a confident grin.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, Gilraen, Fred, and Éowyn had navigated their way through the castle and down to where Gilraen knew the Hufflepuff common room to be. Leading them up to a stack of barrels, she knocked a set rhythm on the centermost barrel. There was a low scraping noise and before their eyes, a section of wall beside the barrels swung inward to reveal what must be the Hufflepuff common room.

"How did you know that?" Fred asked his sister in awe.

"My ex was in Hufflepuff," she offered smugly in explanation, though she chose not to mention that said ex was their sister's new prefect, Jessica Boot. "Now come on," she said impatiently, leading her siblings inside.

"Where's Arwen?" Éowyn asked anxiously.

"The girl's rooms are down this way-" Gilraen started, before turning to her brother. "You wouldn't happen to know if they have any protective charges on the girl's dorms here like we do over in Gryffindor, would you?" she asked hopefully.

"Why would I know? I've never even been here before!" he replied in a harsh whisper. Gilraen rolled her eyes.

"Fine, fine, here," she said, removing the invisibility cloak from herself and Éowyn. "You stay out here, then, we don't want to risk it. We'll be back in a few," she said authoritatively, before leading Éowyn down the hall where she desperately hoped they'd find Arwen. Thankfully, Gryffindor wasn't the only house to label their dormitories, making it fairly easy to find the first year girls. Drawing her wand and holding a finger to her lips to signal her sister, Gilraen cast a quick silencing charm on the door and a muffliato on the two of them. Silently, she pushed open the door and she and Éowyn stepped inside, reading the names on the trunks at the foot of each four poster bed until they found-

"Arwen!" Éowyn whispered excitedly. Gilraen whipped her head around to see her sister making a beeline for the bed on the far left corner. She was just quick enough to cast a muffliato around the bed and tip-toed over to join her sisters. When she got there, the twins were hugging each other close, as if they'd been apart for ten days rather than ten hours.

"Hey R," Gilraen greeted her little sister, who released her twin only to latch on to her older sibling. "Oh, okay, alright, hi!" she said, surprised by the hug, but returning her sister's embrace. "You doing alright, R?" Gilraen asked gently, prying her sisters arms off so she could actually get a look at her. She shrugged.

"I'm alright," she said. Gilraen leveled her with a disbelieving look.

"Okay, maybe not, but I will be," Arwen clarified. "There are a lot of really nice girls here, and I think it'll be okay," she said with a shrug. Beside her, Éowyn shifted, curling in on herself and pulling her knees in to her chest.

"Hey, hey, Ayo, you guys are gonna be fine," Gilraen insisted, one hand on each sister's shoulder. "R, I'm happy that you're starting to make new friends, I'm _so_ happy for you," she assured her. "And Ayo, I am _certain_ that you are going to make new friends too," she said with a tone of finality.

"You two, I can't even pretend to know what your relationship is like. I have never seen a more remarkable friendship between two people than what you two share. And you know what? Your friendship is more than strong enough to handle being sorted into two different houses. I know that you two are seeing this like it's the end of the world, but really, it's not. Honestly, everyone here has friends in different houses," she said, and at that, their expressions perked up a bit. "My friend Rose, she's one of my best friends here, and she's a Ravenclaw. Fred's best friends? Tommy and Garrett? Garrett's a Hufflepuff. Guys, you're going to be fine," Gilraen reassured her sisters with a smile. "You'll be able to eat meals together, you'll probably have classes together, it's gonna be alright, I promise," she said, moving to hug her little sisters.

"Thanks Gil," Éowyn said, her voice muffled by her sister's shoulder.

"Yeah, thanks Gil," Arwen echoed her twin.

"No problem, guys."

* * *

 **So there you have it, a little royal family fluff for you; hope you liked it! If you did, let me know in a review!**

 **Natalie out.**


	5. First Meetings

**AN: Hey cool kids, I'm back with another installment of the Reinforcements Appendices! I've had this one in the works for awhile, so here goes!**

 **I still don't own Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. If I did, I'd have more than three pairs of jeans that fit.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

 **August 11, 3007 TA**

For someone who had very recently had her entire life uprooted, Ginevra Molly Weasley thought she was handling her move to Middle Earth pretty well. She had yet to have a breakdown, she was getting comfortable in her new residence, developing relationships with her hosts, and learning so much about this new world every day that Hermione would be green with envy. Ginny, Fred, and George were getting lessons in everything form swordplay to Sindarin and that kept them busy enough to keep their minds off of anything that might send them off the rails. Ginny was handling this shit pretty well.

That was, until she realized it was her birthday.

She had that little bombshell of a realization during her daily lesson with Erestor. The elf lord had been tutoring her in Sindarin, teaching her how to read and write, to speak and communicate in the elvish language. They had been working on letters and sounds for a very long time, followed by basic greetings and other simple phrases for the last two months and _finally_ , Erestor had decided that she was ready to move on. He had thought that dates and months would be a good place to start.

Erestor wrote out twelve words and had Ginny read them aloud. She did pretty well with it, all things considered. The elf translated them for her, pairing the names she knew with these new ones, and had her recite them over and over until she could do it from memory.

"Repeat after me, _August eleventh_ ," he said once he was satisfied with her month memorization. Ginny obliged, though she was a bit confused as to why he chose that particular date for her to recite.

"Why August eleventh?" she asked him in the common tongue.

"That's today's date," he answered simply, turning back to his books and either ignoring or not noticing the way that Ginny froze.

 _August eleventh_. _August fucking eleventh._

It was her _birthday._ It was her _sixteenth birthday._

Erestor must have said something to her that she didn't hear, because all of a sudden, he was laying a hand on her arm and looking at her with concern that she usually didn't associate with the stern elf lord.

"I'm sorry," Ginny cut off whatever he had been about to say and pushing her chair out from the table. "I'm not feeling well, I gotta go," she said, not even bothering to make an attempt to sound convincing as she backed out of the room, breaking into a run as soon as she made it into the hallway.

 _It was her birthday._

Usually, that little fact was a cause for celebration. Usually, Ginny would spend this day with her family, getting woken up early by Fred and George (back when he still lived at home, Charlie would join them) only for them to drag her downstairs - still in her pajamas - for breakfast. Usually, owls would swoop in through the window with gifts from friends and extended family and she would open them at the kitchen table, feeding Luna's barn owl little bits of waffle as a thank you and conveniently forgetting to give anything to Auntie Muriel's ancient screech owl.

Usually, the morning and afternoon would be spent playing quidditch in the yard with her brothers (and Harry the last few summers), and dinner meant presents from her family and a beautiful cake from her mum complete with birthday candles that had flames that changed color the longer you let them burn.

Usually, Ginny's birthday was spent at home with her family, but this time, she was about as far from that as she could get.

She made it back to her bedroom and closed the door behind her, leaning back against it and closing her eyes tightly. She hadn't cried once since coming here, and she wasn't about to start now. She managed to pull herself together long enough to distract herself and two hours later, she'd had a nap and was attempting to read the equivalent of a childrens' book when there was a knock on her door.

"Yeah?" she called in response.

"Hey, Gin," Fred greeted his sister as he opened the door to reveal himself and his twin.

"We just wanted to check on you," George said, the two of them making themselves comfortable seated on the foot of her bed. "Erestor said that you ran out of your lesson with him earlier."

"It's nothing," Ginny brushed it off, her tone of voice a bit closed off and distant.

"Why don't we believe you?" Fred asked, quirking a brow at his sister.

"Please, Fred, just leave it," Ginny practically begged, a bit desperate now.

"Gin, you know that you can talk to us, right?" George said gently.

"Yes, George, I know, but that doesn't mean that I _want_ to, okay? Please just leave it," she repeated herself shortly, burying her face in her hands and just hoping, _praying_ , that they would just leave her the fuck alone.

"Is there anything we can do?" Fred asked after a moment, tentatively placing a hand on his little sister's shoulder. Her only answer was to shove his hand away.

"Gin, please, will you just tell us what's wrong?" George tried again, and Ginny snapped.

"It's my birthday, okay?" Ginny finally said, propelling herself off of the bed and to her feet, turning around to face her brothers, her arms folded across her chest and her glare murderous. "You want to make me feel better? How about you apparate us back to the Burrow so I can spend my sixteenth birthday with mum and dad? How about you go back and time and stop us from making this _stupid_ decision to come here in the first place? How about-" Ginny cut herself off, screwing her eyes shut and taking a deep breath to calm herself down.

"Ginny-"

"No, I'm sorry, I just- I can't talk about this right now," Ginny cut Fred off, storming out of her room and slamming door behind her. She let her feet carry her out of the winding halls of Imladris and into the open air, through grounds and gardens all the way to the armory, which was blessedly empty of people. She blew into the building like a gust of wind — heavy breath and tousled hair from running; and tears beginning to well up in her eyes. She slammed the door behind her and letting out a cry of frustration, she kicked at the wood, the hinges and locks banging with the force of her anguish. The tears were coming in earnest now, and she pounded on the door, slamming her fists against it and crying out, finally letting herself have the breakdown she had put off for so long.

She was just _so angry._ She was separated from her family, from her friends, from _everything_ she knew, and she was just expected to take it with a smile. No, it was worse, she was expected to become some kind of war hero in this place, a perfect, courageous, and deadly weapon that she could _never_ see herself becoming. She couldn't stand this. She was furious — at Dumbledore, at Gandalf, at Lord Elrond, Erestor, her brothers, even _herself_ for getting herself into this goddamned mess. Ginny let that anger, that _rage_ , fill her up as she cried, as she shouted, and as she abused the wooden doors of the armory, until she tired herself out, slumping against the door. She rested her forehead against the smooth wood, screwing her eyes shut tight in an attempt to fight back the tears and still clenching her fists with all her might.

She couldn't do this.

Unclenching her fists, she turned her back against the doors and let herself slide down them until she was sitting on the cool stone floor. Absently, she let her fingers run over the smooth paving stones, up and down the grooves, and the repetitive motion began to calm her down.

She _was_ angry, that much was true, but that wasn't all of it. She was homesick.

She was so, _so_ , homesick.

She missed her family so much. She missed her mum, her kind smiles, her hugs, her _food_ , and her unwavering love. She missed her dad's support, his sparkplugs, his damn rubber ducks, and their late night shared cups of hot chocolate. She missed Bill and Charlie, their teasing and their laughter. She missed Ron, and she _never_ thought that was possible. She missed playing quidditch and chess with him, she missed his stupid owl, and she missed teasing him about Hermione.

 _Merlin_ , she missed Hermione. There was _no one_ here even remotely close to her age, no one she could talk to, no one she could relate to and there are some things that you simply can't talk about with older brothers. She missed having _friends_ , friends she could just sit around and talk with, friends she could laugh and cry with, friends who would sit around the fireplace in the Gryffindor common room until two in the morning on a school night, complaining about classes, relationships, and families.

She missed Hogwarts.

She missed staircases that would move every other Friday and that had disappearing steps. She missed paintings that would shout rude things at you as you walked by and suits of armor that would follow student they found particularly interesting. She missed the Fat Lady. She missed the stupid passwords that let her into her stupid common room and _Merlin_ did she miss her common room. Rivendell was nice, but there was no competing with the plush armchairs and warm fireplace of Gryffindor tower. Ginny missed sitting around that fireplace, listening to Ron and Hermione bicker while she leaned against Harry's legs, throwing playfully exasperated glances back at him, sending him into fits of barely stifled chuckles.

 _Harry_.

She missed him _so much_. Sometimes, that longing made her feel stupid — he had broken up with her, for Merlin's sake — but that didn't stop her from missing him, missing what they'd had. She missed the easy intimacy of their relationship. It had taken him awhile to get comfortable with it, but after they got together, it wasn't long before he was always holding her hand or had an arm around her waist. She missed that kind of casual affection that came with having someone to care about — someone to kiss and to hold and who would do the same for you.

Fucking hell.

Back home, when Ginny got in these moods, she would jump on her broom to clear her head. God _damn_ it, some days, she thought she missed quidditch most of all. Honestly, she could have seen herself becoming a professional player if she'd wanted to, maybe play for the Holyhead Harpies or something. That dream was so far out of her reach now that it was laughable. She didn't even have a broom here, let alone people she could play quidditch with. Merlin, even just a chance to fly would make her feel better. Just to escape, feel the wind on her face and the exhilaration of speed- but that was impossible here. Just one more thing for her to miss and mourn.

Ginny was brought out of her thoughts and temporarily distracted from her grief by the sound of someone walking into the armory from the opposite set of doors. She looked up to she someone she hadn't met before, and she was pretty sure he wasn't an elf. No elf she had met would allow their hair to get that scraggly. Said scraggly hair was very dark in color and fell to the man's shoulders, framing a bearded face with kind eyes. Striding into the armory, a concerned look on his face, his eyes zeroed in on Ginny in a matter of seconds, though he did a good job of making it look nonchalant.

"Hello," he greeted her, carefully approaching her slowly as one would a wounded animal, though he kept his tone fairly light.

"'Lo," Ginny returned, wiping at her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt in a vain attempt to erase the evidence of her breakdown.

"You must be one of Lord Elrond's new charges," he said conversationally, courteously turning his attention to a wall of bows to allow Ginny more time to compose herself.

"I- uh, yeah. Yeah, that's me and my brothers," she confirmed. The man nodded in response.

"I was housed here myself when I was a child," he said, and Ginny couldn't imagine why he was confiding in her, but his voice was calming. "The Lord Elrond raised me as if I were his own son," he went on, pausing to look over at her, his eyes open and honest. "I have no doubt that he will do the same for you and your brothers," he told her surely. She only shrugged and looked back down at her feet, swiping one sleeve across her eyes again.

"I came here to work on my aim," he began to speak again, and Ginny looked up to see him gesturing to the quiver and bow slung across his back. "But," he continued, wandering over to the practice swords, "you look like you could use a sparring partner," he said, picking out two training swords, one a little shorter than the other. Ginny's face must have taken on a despairing expression because the man then adopted a small, reassuring smile. "Lord Glorfindel tells me that Elrond's new charges have begun training with swords and bows," he told her. "Is he a liar?"

"No," Ginny replied somewhat shortly. The man's smile grew a little wider.

"I have found that sparring does wonders to clear my head," he stated, approaching her now, the two practice swords in one hand while he offered her the other. "It may help you, as well."

Ginny looked up into the face of this stranger of a man and felt an odd sense of security and hope. She felt safe around this man and she had no idea why. Maybe it was the easy and open nature with which he had talked about his own time in Imladris; maybe it was the honesty she detected in him; it may just have been something in his eyes.

"What's your name?" Ginny asked him, looking up into those blue-grey eyes.

"Aragorn," he told her after a moment. "And yours?"

"Ginny."

* * *

 **Thanks for reading! If you liked it, let me know in a review! Also, thanks so much to everyone who's been reading these appendices. I really appreciate all the feedback, especially stonebreakerironhill and The New York Bear for your prompts! I've started working on them and I am so excited to see where they go.**

 **As always, if you want to see something, send me a prompt!**

 **Natalie out.**


	6. Difficult Questions: Grandmothers

**AN: Hey everyone, guess what time of year it is! That's right, it's finals time, which means that instead of studying and writing papers like I should be doing, I'm writing fic! I had a thought the other day that for the first few years of Gilraen's life, she wouldn't have known the words "grandmother" and "grandfather" and thus this ficlet was born.**

 **I still don't own Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. If I did, I'd have a phone case that wasn't falling apart.**

 **Enjoy, and happy finals!**

* * *

 **May 27, 5 FA**

"Elwen!" a voice called from the door of a young Gilraen's playroom. The two little girls who had been playing together all afternoon looked up at the sound to see both of their mothers waiting for them. "Elwen," the woman repeated, "it's time for us to go," she said.

"Why?" Gilraen asked, her face drooping into a pout.

"Because Elwen's grandmother is expecting us," the girl's mother, a very fancy and pretty looking lady (who Gilraen didn't think her own mother liked very much) said, beckoning the girl over to her. Elwen gave Gilraen back the doll she had been playing with and obeyed her mother, going over the door, the young princess right behind her.

"What do you say to Elwen, _nínim?_ " Gilraen's mum prompted her with a gentle hand on her shoulder and a kind tone.

"Thank you for coming and playing with me, Elwen," Gilraen recited, smiling at her friend and then at her mum.

"Thank you for having me over," Elwen replied, and her own mother gave the dark haired girl a smile of approval.

"Let's go, sweetheart," the woman said, taking her daughter's hand and pulling her along as they went, through the citadel and down to the sixth level.

"Alright dear, let's get you cleaned up for dinner," Gilraen's mum said once Elwen was gone. Gilraen nodded and went ahead to her bedroom, her mum right behind her.

* * *

"Mama?" Gilraen asked Ginny that night as she was tucking the girl in to bed.

"Yes, nínim?"

"What's a grandmother?"

Ginny froze for a moment, though she closed her eyes to take said moment to collect herself. Of course Gilraen didn't know that. Why would she?

"Grandmother is the word for your dad's mum or your mum's mum," Ginny explained to her little four-year-old girl, tucking a strand of her bright red hair back behind her ear. "Why do you ask?"

"Because Elwen went to see her grandmother today," the girl answered promptly.

 _Of course that was where this came from,_ Ginny realized. Where else would she have heard the term? It wasn't as if Gilraen had grandparents in this world.

"That's right, she did," Ginny confirmed.

"Do I have a grandmother?" Gilraen asked then.

"Well," Ginny began, not quite sure how to broach this. "Everybody has grandmothers and grandfathers," she began. "I do, your father does, your Uncle George does, and so do you and Fred."

"Why don't we know them?" Gilraen then asked, quite obviously confused. Ginny bit her lip to keep herself from crying.

"Well, part of that is because your father's mum and dad aren't with us anymore," Ginny began gently, smoothing her daughter's hair. "Your father and I named you after your grandmum on that side, you know," she added. Gilraen's eyes lit up in curiosity. Ginny smiled at her little girl. "They both died a very long time ago," Ginny explained. "But they would have loved you and your brother, _nínim_ , so much. They were brave, and smart, and they did everything in their power to protect your father while they were alive.

"Now your other grandmum and granddad, they live somewhere very far away," Ginny settled on, and when she said that, Gilraen looked a bit confused. "Too far away for us to visit them right now, but your Uncle George and I are working on a way to fix that," the red-headed woman explained.

"What's she like?" Gilraen asked through a yawn, settling in to her pillows and hugging her doll close - a soft and well-loved little thing with what used to be very bright red hair.

"She's-" Ginny began, not quite sure where to start. "She's kind," the woman settled with. "She is so incredibly kind." From there, Ginny launched into stories, memories, everything she could think of to tell her daughter about Molly Weasley until the little girl fell asleep. Pressing a soft kiss to her forehead, Ginny carefully got up from her bed and after checking on Fred, retreated to her own bedroom for the night. When she got there, it was to find Aragorn still at his desk, busy reading something that needed his approval, though she wasn't sure what.

Approaching her husband from behind, she snaked her arms around his shoulders, bending over to give him a warm, lingering kiss on the cheek. In return, he turned towards her and kissed her properly on the lips, casual and welcoming. Ginny gave him another kiss on the cheek and straightened up, moving her hands to his shoulders and beginning to gently massage the tense muscle there.

"Long day?" she asked, judging by the state of his shoulders alone. He nodded in response and then let his head fall back towards her, his eyes closed and a contented smile upon his lips.

"Yes, but it is worth it if I get this kind of treatment at the end of the day," he elaborated, looking up at her now with a bit of a shit-eating grin. Ginny rolled her eyes at him but smiled back lovingly.

"Gilraen had an interesting question for me today," she told her husband in what she hoped was a casual tone.

"Oh?"

"She asked me what a grandmother was," Ginny told him, her voice taking on a slightly melancholy note. In response, the grin faded from her husband's lips.

"What did you tell her?" he asked carefully.

"I told her the truth," Ginny began, her hands still working at the knots in Aragorn's shoulders. "She heard the term from one of her friends - I hadn't even realized that that was a word she didn't know," she said softly. "I told her about how you mum and then about how she's named after yours; she fell asleep while I was telling her what my mum's like," she went on, her hands pausing in place. There were a few beats of silence during which Ginny snaked her arms around Aragorn's shoulders, bending down and burying her face in the crook of his neck. She felt him lift his hands to rest them on her arms and rest his head upon her own to provide her with as much physical contact and comfort as he could.

After another moment, Aragorn nudged his wife and she loosened her grip on him enough for him to free himself and stand up, taking her hand and leading her to the sofa by the fireplace. Aragorn sat down first, taking the end of the couch and opening his arms to nonverbally invite Ginny to sit beside him in a far more comfortable manner than they had been previously. With a grateful half-smile, Ginny obliged and sat beside him, tucking her legs up under her and leaning into his side, her head on his chest and his arm around her shoulders.

"They're never going to know their grandparents," Ginny said softly, fidgeting idly with the laces of her husband's shirt.

"No, _meleth-nín,_ that's not true," Aragorn insisted gently. "You and George are going to work out that travel mechanism of yours and when you do, not only will you get to see the rest of your family again, but the children will meet their grandparents," he said assuredly.

"And you'll get to meet your in-laws," Ginny added with a hint of a smirk, looking up at him.

"Aye," he agreed, a hint of trepidation in his voice.

"They'd love you," Ginny said softly, meeting his eyes. "You love me, I love you, we love our kids, and that is all that matters," she stated simply, cupping his cheek and bringing him down for a kiss; soft, warm, and comforting.

* * *

 **Hope you liked it! If you did, let me know in a review!**

 **If there's something you want to see - past, present, or future in the Reinforcements-verse - let me know and I'll give it a shot! I'm 100% open to prompts!**

 **Natalie out.**


	7. When You Learn You're Dating A Princess

**It's been awhile, but we're back! To _Stonebreakerironhill_ , I know it's been about eight months, but you left a review back in March asking to see how Alice would react to learning that Gilraen's a princess and here we are! **

**I still don't own Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. If I did, I wouldn't be worrying about making sure I had enough money to pay my rent for the rest of the year.**

 **Without further ado, here's _I Think I'm Kinda Gay Part 2: What To Do When You Learn You're Dating A Princess_**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

"Hey, Ali?" Gilraen greeted her girlfriend one afternoon in late April of their seventh year. Alice nodded absently in response, not looking up from her arithmancy notes. "Can I talk to you about something?"

At that, Alice's head snapped up to look directly at her girlfriend. Her tone of voice had been beyond nervous and looking up at her, Alice saw a frightening amount of anxiety on her face.

"Yeah, of course," she said at once, closing her arithmancy textbook with her notes still in the pages and stuffing it in her bag, getting to her feet and following Gilraen up to their dormitory. She watched as Gil dug something out of her trunk — Alice didn't get a good look at it before she very carefully placed it in her bag — and seemed to be debating something internally for a moment before grabbing Alice's hand, leading her out of the dormitory and in the direction of the seventh floor corridor.

"Gil," Alice tried to get her attention somewhere around the fifth floor. She didn't respond.

"Gilraen, stop," Alice repeated herself firmly, stopping in her tracks and her grip on her girlfriend's hand bringing the redhead to a stop too. "Love, you're making me worried, is everything okay?" she asked concernedly, drawing her close and cupping her cheek. Gilraen leaned into the contact and nodded, though that anxiety was still there in her eyes.

"I'm okay, at least, I am right now," she said most unhelpfully before dragging Alice off again. She didn't say another word before they reached the stretch of wall where the Room of Requirement lay hidden. Muttering under her breath. Gilraen paced three times back and forth along the wall and the door appeared, whereupon she opened it and held it for Alice, who followed apprehensively.

For awhile, neither girl said anything. Gilraen was in her own head, pacing back and forth while Alice sat patiently on a couch, or at least as patiently as she could. That being not very patiently. Alice knew that she was going to have to wait for Gilraen to be ready to say something, but that didn't make the waiting any easier. Try as she might to ignore them, little nagging doubts kept cropping up in Alice's brain, the most prominent being _oh_ ** _Merlin_** _, she's breaking up with me. She's fucking breaking up with me_. Suffice to say, Alice was getting a little anxious herself.

She _loved_ Gilraen, like, _loved_ loved her. She may not have told her yet, but that didn't really matter. If she was honest with herself, Alice was frightened by how much she loved Gilraen. She loved this stubborn, smart, kind, selfless, and stupidly brave girl with all her heart. Alice could see herself _marrying_ this girl, starting a family with her, spending her life with her and growing old with her.

Which was why she was _terrified_ that Gilraen was going to end things.

Alice waited through another minute of agonizing silence while Gilraen paced before speaking up.

"Gil, if you're going to break up with me, could you please just hurry up and do it so I can go down to the kitchens and start drowning my sorrows in ice cream already?"

At that, Gilraen's head whipped around to stare at Alice.

"Oh, no, no, Ali, _meleth-nin,_ no, that's not what this is at all!" she hurried to assure her, kneeling in front of the couch Alice had claimed and taking her hands in her own. "I just- there's some stuff about me that I haven't told you, about my family and where I'm from and I just don't know where to start because this is _huge_ and I had to ask my parents for their permission to tell you and everything and I don't want you to freak out about it and-"

"Hey, hey Gil, look at me, slow down," Alice interrupted her gently, hunching over a bit to be closer to her and tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear. "How about you start with that thing you call me? The thing you said was from home?"

" _Meleth-nin?"_ Gilraen asked, puzzled.

"Yeah, that," Alice confirmed. Gilraen nodded somewhat absently.

"I- yeah, that'll work, yeah. I uh, well, it's a phrase in a language called Sindarin."

"Never heard of it," Alice informed her, moving over to make space on the couch for Gilraen.

"That's because it's not from this world," Gilraen said tentatively, watching Alice's face for her reaction. "It's from a place called Arda, or Middle earth if you want to use the common name. I speak it, my brother and sisters and our cousin Théo speaks it, but she's not as fluent as my siblings and I. We learned it from our parents. We- they- by the _Valar_ , this is harder to explain than I thought it would be. Okay, you know how I've never invited you to come over during the summer holidays?" she tried a new angle.

Alice nodded.

"That's because I'm from a city called Minas Tirith and it's literally in a different world."

"In Middle Earth?" Alice asked for clarification, just to make sure she was following along.

"Yeah," Gilraen confirmed. "It's- Merlin, you're gonna think I'm crazy. It's the capital of a kingdom called Gondor and-" Gilraen paused to take a deep breath before dropping the biggest information bomb on her girlfriend that she possibly could. "My mum and ada are it's King and Queen."

"They're- they're what?" Alice asked, dumbfounded.

"My mum and ada are literal royalty," Gilraen repeated herself. At that, Alice got to her feet and started pacing.

"You- your mum and dad-"

"Yep."

"They came over for dinner at the Leaky with my parents over Christmas!"

"Yep."

"Your _mum and dad-_ wait, does that mean that you're royalty too?" Alice asked then, whirling around to stare, wide-eyed, at Gilraen, who was rubbing the back of her neck and staring at her feet. "You're _royalty?"_

"Yeah…"

"You're a fucking _princess?"_

"The crown princess, actually," Gilraen clarified in a mumbling tone.

" _Crown princess?"_ Alice cried indignantly. When she looked back to Gilraen, it was to see her pulling that thing out of her bag that she had grabbed back in the dorm. "Oh no, _Oh_ no, is that what I think it is? Is that what I fucking think it is?"

Gilraen unwrapped the fabric to reveal a delicate silver circlet that sparkled with sapphires.

"I had my coronation a few weeks ago-"

" _That_ was why you went home for your birthday!" Alice cried, and Gilraen nodded.

"And I asked my mum and ada for permission to tell you the truth and also if I could bring this back with me as proof."

Now, Alice was silent, still pacing, but now she had her hands in her hair.

"Are you mad?" Gilraen asked softly.

"No, no, it's just really hard to wrap my head around this — you're _royalty_ , actual legitimate, real _royalty_. I'm dating a princess. I'm in love with an actual, real _princess_ -" Alice stopped dead and clapped her hands over her mouth. Over on the couch, a shit-eating grin was growing on Gilraen's lips.

"You're in love with me?" Gilraen asked, setting her crown down on the couch and sauntering towards her girlfriend.

"I- no, I didn't say that, I-" Alice stammered.

"Oh, that's a shame," Gilraen said with a smirk, snaking her hands around Alice's waist and tugging her closer. "Because I'm in love with you, too," she admitted, her blue-grey eyes locked on Alice's hazel ones.

"Oh," Alice breathed out, a smile beginning to grow on her lips.

"That's what _meleth-nin_ means, by the way," Gilraen said, moving even closer, her lips a hair's breadth apart from Alice's. "It translates to 'my love.'"

"It sounds sexier the other way," Alice told her with a grin before finally closing the gap between them with a slow and languid kiss. Gilraen's hands found their way down to Alice's hips and tugged her flush against her, while Alice tangled one hand in Gilraen's hair at the nape of her neck and the other rested at the small of her back. When they ran out of air, Alice moved to rest her forehead against Gilraen's and they remained in each others' arms until something occurred to the blonde witch.

Gilraen spotted her mischievous grin out in her peripherals and leaned back far enough to get a good look at her.

"What are you thinking?" she asked warily, but Alice only grinned wider and went to the couch, snatching up the circlet and turning back to face Gilraen with that grin still fixed on her lips.

"Oh no," Gilraen whined, her posture slumping. "No, Ali, I'm disgusting, I haven't washed my hair in three days-"

Alice clicked her tongue and shook her head at her, setting the circlet on her girlfriend's brow, just above the messy bun her dirty hair had been knotted into. Alice took a step back to look at her — all rumpled hair, sweatpants, and a gryffindor quidditch t-shirt — but with that crown that made her eyes sparkle like nothing else, she was absolutely breathtaking. Gilraen shifted uncomfortably under her gaze, which prompted Alice to step forward again to take her face in her hands and Gilraen recognized the look in her girlfriend's eyes as the same one her mum got when she looked at her ada.

"Gil-" Alice cut herself off with a wide smile. "Oh Merlin, Gil, you are so beautiful."

Gilraen's lips turned upwards into a nervous smile as she looked back up at Alice.

"I'm dating a fucking princess," Alice breathed, her smile audible in her voice.

"Hell yeah, you are," Gilraen replied, pushing herself up on her toes just enough to press a kiss to her girlfriend's lips.

* * *

After that day, Alice took to calling Gilraen 'princess,' 'her majesty,' and plenty other variations thereof. It was something of a joke between the two of them, something Alice would do to tease her girlfriend or to make her smile when she was having a bad day. At least, it stayed between them until Fred caught her saying it.

It was during Quidditch practice that it happened — the last practice before the final against Ravenclaw, in fact.

"Alright, good work everyone, but let's run that form again!" Gilraen shouted, and the Gryffindor Quidditch team rushed to get back into position.

"As her majesty commands!" Alice shouted back with a grin, taking off for the goal posts.

When Fred heard the title fall from the Keeper's lips, he did such a severe double take that he nearly fell from his broom. _Her majesty? Does Alice know?_ Fred worried internally. _No, there's no way she would know, right? Gil didn't mention anything about telling her, did she? Nah. It must have been a joke, they kid around with each other like that all the time,_ he tried to convince himself. He managed to talk himself out of his panic for the rest of practice, but by the time Gilraen was giving them permission to go hit the showers, a certain anxiety and paranoia had settled itself firmly in Fred's gut. He had to know. He had to ask her because if she knew then it could make for some serious trouble for himself and his family. Steeling himself as he touched back down to the ground, he called out to his sister's girlfriend.

"Uh, Alice?"

"Yeah, Fred?" the blonde Keeper replied, turning back around to face him and stopping midway to the locker rooms.

"Can I talk to you for a sec?"

"Yeah, sure, what's going on?" she asked, strolling over to him and casually swinging her broom up to rest it across her shoulders and behind her head, her arms slung over it to hold it in place.

"You uh, you called Gil 'your majesty,'" he said, his voice taking on a tone that was bordering on threatening. "Was, uh, was that for any particular reason, or…" he trailed off, letting the alternative option hanging in the air.

"Gilraen told me, Fred," Alice said gently, moving to hold her broom in front of her instead, the handle planted in the grass as she leaned on it. "She told me about your family and about your parents and where you're from, she even showed me her damn _crown_."

"She- wow. Wow, okay, wow. Why didn't I know this?" Fred asked himself exasperatedly. " _Gil!_ " he then shouted for his sister, who turned around at the sound of her brother's voice and jogged back to them.

"What d'you want?"

"You told Alice?" he asked in a hushed voice once she reached them.

"Told Alice what?" Gilraen asked, confused. Fred rolled his eyes at his sister.

"About the royalty thing!" he clarified exasperatedly, his voice still hushed. "What else would I be talking about? We already know you're gay, what other secrets do we even _have?_ "

" _Oh_ ," Gilraen realized, "yeah, I told her, and before you get your boxers in a bunch, I asked Mum and Ada for permission first." Fred gaped at them and Alice couldn't handle it anymore, she burst out laughing — a gleeful, joyous laugh that soon had Gilraen and Fred laughing along with her.

* * *

"Are you sure about this, Gil?" Alice asked a bit warily from beside her girlfriend as they stood in front of the fireplace at the Burrow, a few months after their graduation.

"Abolutely," Gilraen replied, her voice sure and unwavering. "C'mon," she then said with an encouraging smile, stepping into the fireplace and reaching a hand out to Alice. Though she was nervous, the blonde girl couldn't pretend that she wasn't excited as she took her girlfriend's hand and stepped into the fireplace beside her. Reaching into a small pouch around her neck, Gilraen retrieved a small handful of sparkling green powder, a slightly bluer shade than that of standard floo powder.

"Ready?" Gilraen asked one more time.

"Ready," Alice replied. With a wide and gleeful smirk, Gilraen threw the powder at their feet and green flames sprung up in the hearth, licking at their arms and legs.

"Minas Tirith, royal chambers!" Gilraen said clearly and authoritatively, and both girls felt a tugging sensation around the navel, pulling them out of one world and into another. Sputtering and spitting out ash, the girls reappeared in the fireplace of Gilraen's family's common room.

"Home sweet home," Gilraen breathed, and Alice looked down at her face to see a breathtakingly contented smile on her lips. Tearing her eyes away from her girlfriend, Alice turned her attention to the room they had flooed into. It was a large room, open and full of light. Captivated by the light, Alice dropped gilraen's hand and crossed the room to the window, stepping out onto a balcony that overlooked a vast plain. She could make out a river in the distance, and some mountains, but what really took her breath away was the sight just below them, a gleaming white city spread out over seven levels and bustling with people.

"Wow," Alice breathed out in amazement.

"Pretty cool, right?" Gilraen agreed, coming up behind her and hugging her around her middle.

"You grew up here? Alice asked in wonder, moving her hands to cover Gilraen's small ones where they rested on her waist.

"My Ada taught me to swim in that river," Gilraen said, reaching to point it out in the distance. "It's called the Anduin," she went on, pushing herself up on her toes to rest her chin on Alice's shoulder. "And just across the river there," she continued, shifting to point a bit further north, "is the city of Osgiliath. I have an uncle that lives there."

"What about those mountains?" Alice asked then, leaning back into Gilraen's embrace.

"That's _Ephel Dúath,_ the Outer Fence," Gilraen identified the mountain range.

"Was that something in that language you told me about?" Alice asked, turning to rest her cheek against Gilraen's head where it still rested on her shoulder.

"Sindarin," Gilraen confirmed, "yeah," she said, turning to press a gentle kiss to Alice's cheek. They lingered there for awhile, admiring the view, until Gilraen began to pull away, though she took Alice's hand in her own, unwinding her arms from around her and twirling Alice a bit in her arms to face her. "C'mon," she said, a grin on her lips, pulling the taller witch along with her out of the royal family's living room and into a series of white marble halls and corridors.

"So, what do you wanna see?" she asked, looking up at Alice with that grin still on her lips.

"What do you wanna show me?" Alice turned the question back on her, not expecting Gilraen's grin to turn mischievous.

"I know just the thing," she said, and in the blink of an eye, she was darting down the corridor. "C'mon!" she called excitedly over her shoulder, and Alice stood for a moment in wonder at the joy that was simply radiating out from her girlfriend in waves before chasing after her.

"Gil, slow down!" Alice cried after she nearly tripped over her roves for the third time, laughter bubbling out from her lips.

"Oh, come on! We're almost there!" Gilraen replied, throwing a wide grin over her shoulder at Alice. Gilraen put on another burst of speed and Alice struggled to gather up her robes in her hands, but she managed to keep up with her pace, laughing happily at her girlfriend's joy. Gilraen made another left turn and to the right, Alice caught sunlight streaming through a window. Gilraen stopped abruptly in front of a heavy door and Alice nearly crashed into her with her momentum.

"Where are we?" Alice asked excitedly. Gilraen grinned up at her.

"You ready?" Gilraen asked, that grin still on her lips. Alice shook her head, though she smiled back.

"Let's do it," she replied, and she watched as Gilraen started to open the door before she paused, turning back to face her. Throwing quick looks down both ends of the empty corridor, she stretched up on her toes to give Alice a quick, chaste kiss. She broke away with the widest grin on her lips and pushed the doors open wide, letting the sunlight flood the hallway. Taking Alice's hand, Gilraen led her outside, down a paved path through a green courtyard until they reached a white tree, around which stood four guards in impressive regalia.

"This is the White Tree of Gondor," Gilraen said softly, looking up at the tree and reaching up to gently run her fingers over one of the blossoms on a lower branch. Alice had never seen anything like it. "It's a symbol, but it's tied to my family. For as long as the rightful king or queen sits upon the throne, this tree flourishes and grows. My mum and dad told me that before my dad took up the throne, the tree was dying, and no wonder, it had been centuries since an actual King or Queen had ruled Gondor."

"So when you become the queen-" Alice started to ask, though she trailed off, distracted by the tree's beauty.

"The tree will continue to grow," Gilraen confirmed.

"And after you?"

"After me, Fred or Éowyn or Arwen's kid will probably be taught to be my heir and they'll take over when I abdicate," she explained.

"What about _your_ kids?" Alice asked, a bit confused and concerned.

"I- c'mon," Gilraen said softly, taking Alice's hand and pulling her away from the tree and towards the rest of the courtyard. The girls walked hand in hand down the top of the spire that cut down through the levels of the city until they were nearly at the end. Dropping Alice's hand, Gilraen moved to lean against the wall, staring down into the city below.

"What's up, Gil?" Alice asked worriedly, mimicking the redhead's motions and leaning beside her.

"I- I've never met anyone here who's like me, like- like us," Gilraen began. "I mean, maybe I have, but no one ever talks about it. No one's _out._ The only love you see here is between men and women. I don't- I don't know what people's opinions of people like us even _are_. I don't know how people would respond to me coming out publicly, let alone how they would take me marrying a woman," she said wistfully.

"I know my parents would never force me to marry, but it may come to the point where for the good of the kingdom-" Gilraen cut herself off.

"You might have to marry for political reasons?" Alice asked cautiously.

"I try not to think about that possibility," Gilraen said, ducking her head to stare down into the city, anywhere but her girlfriend.

"You know you don't have to do anything you don't want to, right, Gil?" Alice said, reaching to cover her girlfriend's hand with her own. "I have never known you to do anything you don't want. remember when Eddie Brennan tried to kiss you in third year?"

Gilraen snorted with laughter.

"He was a dumbass," Gilraen muttered.

"Damn right he was," Alice agreed. "But remember what you did?"

Gilraen's lips started to turn upwards into a reluctant smile.

"He was stuck in the hospital wing for almost a week," she recalled.

"And the warts were still going down for four days after Pomfrey let him leave," Alice continued the story. "But my _point_ is that no matter what state your kingdom is in, it will never be worth compromising who you are and who you love," she said, gently turning Gilraen's face to look into her eyes. "Besides, you have years until that day comes, _if_ it ever comes. And any political problem that someone says could be solved by you marrying someone you don't want to is a problem that you could solve on your own. Gilraen, you're brilliant. You're an amazing leader and you can figure your way out of anything," she insisted, never looking away from the red-head's beautiful blue-grey eyes. Eyes that were beginning to tear up.

"I really want to kiss you right now."

"What's stopping you?" Alice asked, shifting her weight to bring her closer to Gilraen. The red-headed witch opened her mouth to say something, nervously eyeing the guards who stood around the White Tree, before a certain calm and resolution came over her. There was a determined set to her jaw as she looked back up at Alice.

"Nothing," she said firmly, pushing herself up on her toes to close the distance between them, moving to gently cup her girlfriend's cheek as she kissed her softly.

She was done compromising herself. It would be difficult, she knew it, but with Alice by her side?

She could do anything.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading! If you liked it or if you have any other things you want to see, let me know! To _The New York Bear_ , i haven't forgotten about the review you left awhile ago! I loved your idea for seeing Molly and Arthur visit Minas Tirith. I've gotten started on it and I'm really excited to see where it goes!**

 **Thanks again, cool kids, Natalie out.**


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